Carthage

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March 27, 2004

Phenomenal Cosmic Landscapes

Update: Pictures of our trip are here.

I decided that after I die, when I am asked by a celestial government worker whether I have a preference in re: my next life, I will request to be a member of the Ahwaneechee tribe in Yosemite about a hundred years before the white people came. Hopefully the Lad will also request this, since I think it would be nice to be together in the next life. No doubt I will then die in childbirth and he will be eaten by a bear, but in the interim years between birth and horrible death we as Ahwaneechees will enjoy some truly phenomenal landscapes together.

On this trip, however, we came to the park as the aforementioned white people. Though we missed out on the more pure, tourist-free experience of the early Ahwaneechees, I was glad to be a card-carrying member of the now when I saw our hotel room, whose private balcony overlooked the grumbly river and whose Jacuzzi tub was big enough for two.

I can't remember the last time I had so much unbroken time with the Lad. We schlepped around to the various waterfalls and hiking trails on offer, making fun of the people carrying ski poles on their hikes or wearing North Face t-shirts. We mocked the people filming the gift shop and laughed at the people trying to take good pictures of stunning views. We become known as "the two-baskets-of-bread couple" at the Ahwanee. We vengefully undertipped. We saw a fox and a baby deer but never a bear as I had hoped. "It would be great if a bear broke into our car," I said. "Like being robbed by a celebrity."

What I want to know now is, why haven't we been visiting Yosemite all these years like Katie Vigil was always encouraging us to do? It's only four hours away. It could conceivably even be a day trip. From now on, I intend to spend at least one Saturday a month there. Four hours in the car, three hours on a hike, two hours napping in a meadow, four hours back. Who's with me?

Posted by didofoot at March 27, 2004 03:13 PM

Comments

I'm with you. I call not driving, though.

Posted by: dianna at March 26, 2004 03:49 PM

I'm with you too! Yosemite rocks! Or, Yosemite has lots of rocks. Either way it's a great place to be.
I could drive... but I'm not very good at it.

Posted by: kati at March 26, 2004 04:48 PM

but it's like an 8 hour drive from San Diego. Are you moving back? I'm lost.

Posted by: gene at March 26, 2004 06:14 PM

My place of seasonal employ wants me back this year, so I'll be up at the end of May, summering in the bay. After that, it's anyone's guess because I don't know where I'll be at school in fall. Hopefully SD or Berkeley. Possibly Davis...
But try not to think to hard. You'll injure yourself.

Posted by: kati at March 26, 2004 11:05 PM

I meant "too hard"
I'm an idiot.
I'll be lucky if *any* school is willing to give me a degree.

Posted by: kati at March 26, 2004 11:07 PM

Yosemite is so great.

I almost felt like an Awaneechee when I spent a summer there working at a camp. Saw many bears, too.
Smart lil' buggers!

Posted by: robyn at March 27, 2004 12:27 AM

was the fox eating the baby dear?

yes, yes i misspelled deer. and i caught it, but i decided to leave it that way, because now you can add a comma and change it to "was the fox eating the baby, dear?", and that makes it even better.

Posted by: holohan at March 27, 2004 07:46 PM

This "Yosemite" place sounds really cool. So I googled for it, and... wow. The geology of this place looks incredible. I now have this image as my desktop background. :-O I so want to go there!

Posted by: chambochae at March 28, 2004 10:06 AM

Actually, your picture of the same view is much better quality so I'm using that :-)

Posted by: chambochae at March 28, 2004 10:17 AM

About a year ago, Jacob and I were planning a backpacking trip. I pushed for upper Yosemite; he was unimpressed; we settled on the Ventana Wilderness, which was also quite lovely. Yesterday Jacob was looking at your pictures and commenting on how gorgeous Yosemite is and how he's never been there. In fact, he says, we should plan a backpacking trip there!

He got a hefty dose of the sardonic single-raised-eyebrow for that, but thank you for making him see the light even in this belated fashion.

Posted by: dianna at March 28, 2004 11:46 PM

I seem to remember that upper Yosemite was covered by snow when we went backpacking. Wasn't that the reason for choosing Ventana?

Posted by: Jacob at March 29, 2004 10:06 AM

Pah. What's a little snow between friends?

Posted by: dianna at March 29, 2004 11:18 AM

the pics, i must admit, are courtesy of the lad.

but the snow was all my doing.

Posted by: didofoot at March 29, 2004 11:27 AM

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